Beck’s Global Business Shifts to Lowe

NEW YORK Lowe has landed global creative duties on InBev’s Beck’s beer after a review, the agency has confirmed. The brand’s annual worldwide media spending is estimated at $40-50 million.

Lowe is an InBev roster shop that already handled Stella Artois globally.

The Interpublic Group agency bested two other contenders to land the business. Sources identified the other shops as Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett in London and IPG’s McCann Erickson in Hamburg, Germany.

InBev reviewed the account less than a year after awarding it to Ground Zero in Los Angeles. Ground Zero did not defend.

Lowe’s London office led its pitch and that office will now run the account, the agency said.

In November, Anheuser-Busch became the exclusive distributor of InBev brands in the U.S., including Beck’s and Stella Artois. U.S. major media spending on Beck’s last year exceeded $20 million.